SCEA President not ready to drop price of PS3

Jack Tretton, President of SCEA has responded to the constant requests from consumers, publishers and developers for a price cut on the PS3.

In a recent interview, he explained that the PlayStation 3 is “on the right path for the long term”, staying defiant and would not bow down to pressure for a slash in the price.

The debate on the cost of the machine has for long plagued the system since it was introduced into the industry, and Jack believes people are thinking too much about the present and not the future:

It’s somewhat natural, especially in this economy. But people are always wanting you to lower your price on hardware…. People are having short-term thinking–the platform is not even three years old. It was $599; it’s now $399. The focus on pricing is something we appreciate, but you have to have the conviction and the confidence that you are on the right path for the long term and ultimately you’ll get all the consumers you want. You won’t get them all day one, but we’re looking to get them over a 10-year period. It’s going to take different things to get different consumers.

Granted the price has come down considerably since launch but there have also been the cut of features like backwards compatibility and memory slots, and after all, the costs for making Blu-ray components have dropped considerably now that the format is becoming more common in the marketplace.

Having said that, you get an awful a lot of goodness for your money making the PS3 great value for money.

Jack goes on to say that other people often see a five year life-cycle for games consoles, but for them they are very much looking at a ten year lifespan, which is very much what we are seeing with the PlayStation 2.

Who knows if they actually have some hidden plans for a price cut soon but for now Sony are dismissing any possibility that a reduction is just around the corner.